Franken to bolster Senate's majority

Al Franken and his wife, Franni, waved to supporters from their home in Minneapolis yesterday. Republican Norm Coleman conceded his Senate seat to the Democrat. (The Star Tribune / AP)

Al Franken and his wife, Franni, waved to supporters from their home in Minneapolis yesterday. Republican Norm Coleman conceded his Senate seat to the Democrat. (The Star Tribune / AP)

Al Franken and his wife, Franni, waved to supporters from their home in Minneapolis yesterday. Republican Norm Coleman conceded his Senate seat to the Democrat. (The Star Tribune / AP)

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Al Franken yesterday ascended from the ranks of former “Saturday Night Live” comedians to an even more exclusive club, the U.S. Senate, where he will give Democrats a 60-seat majority that theoretically would allow them to block Republican filibusters.

After nearly eight months of waiting, almost 20,000 pages of legal briefs and millions of dollars in costs, the Minnesota Supreme Court declared Franken the victor over Republican Norm Coleman.

“When you win an election this close, you know not one bit of effort went to waste,” Franken said. “The way I see it, I'm not going to Washington to be the 60th Democratic senator, I'm going to Washington to be the second senator from Minnesota.”

Coleman conceded the election hours after the unanimous ruling that Franken — who first entered the political arena with books poking fun at Rush Limbaugh — should be certified the winner. In doing so, he pulled the plug on a bitter election decided by 312 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast.

“Franni and I are so thrilled that we can finally celebrate this victory,” Franken told reporters with his wife at his side. He added: “I can't wait to get started.”

The court rejected Coleman's arguments that some absentee ballots had been improperly counted and that some localities had used inconsistent standards in counting votes. The ruling led Coleman to concede his seat to Franken, who could be sworn in as soon as next week when the Senate returns from a recess.

“The Supreme Court has spoken. We have a United States senator,” Coleman said. “It's time to move forward.”

The Democrats now have their largest majority in the Senate since 1978, but their ability to prevent filibusters as they attempt to push President Barack Obama's agenda may prove to be illusory.

For instance, a clutch of centrist Democrats have said they oppose the public option in health care reform legislation that would seek to create a government program to compete with private insurers. In addition, several Democrats representing states that rely heavily on manufacturing jobs have expressed concern about the climate change bill that passed the House last week, another Obama priority.

In a statement, the White House said Obama looks “forward to working with Senator-elect Franken to build a new foundation for growth and prosperity by lowering health care costs and investing in the kind of clean energy jobs and industries that will help America lead in the 21st century.”

Franken played down the importance of becoming the 60th Democrat in the chamber.

“Sixty is a magic number, but it isn't, because we know that we have senators who — Republicans who are going to vote with the Democrats, with a majority of Democrats on certain votes, and Democrats that are going to vote with majority Republicans on others,” Franken said.

While he will be a back-bencher in his caucus, Franken also will be thrust almost immediately into one of the summer's highest-profile pieces of political theater, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Democrats have been holding a seat on the Judiciary Committee for the Harvard-educated Franken, who also will serve on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a prime perch in the health care debate.

A longtime Democratic activist, Franken is likely to be a reliable vote for the party on nearly every issue and has largely praised Obama's performance throughout the year. Beyond the Sotomayor hearings, he has indicated that he will attempt to keep a low profile in Washington.

In an interview this year, he said he would seek to replicate the model of former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who generally eschewed major speeches in her first few years on Capitol Hill to focus on learning the internal dynamics of the Senate and tried to avoid upstaging her colleagues.

“A lot of people have been sort of saying, ‘You should really study Hillary's model of being a senator,’ ” Franken said. “She worked across party lines, wasn't grabbing the microphone.”

Before his Senate bid, Franken had gained a reputation as a sharply partisan and acerbic Democrat who mocked Republicans but sometimes worried Democrats with his fiery commentaries on television and radio. After leaving “Saturday Night Live” in 1995, he wrote books such as “Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot” and “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” and hosted a show on the liberal Air America radio network.

Franken largely downplayed his humor, temper and partisan background in his two-year campaign against Coleman, who he repeatedly linked to former President George W. Bush. Franken said little publicly during the legal process, with an eye toward winning over the 57 percent of Minnesota voters who backed either Coleman or independent candidate Dean Barkley.

Coleman led that race by 206 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast after the Nov. 4 vote, but a statewide recount that lasted until January found that after counting absentee ballots that had been improperly excluded, Franken was ahead by 225 votes.

Coleman filed a formal contest of the election in January, resulting in a two-month trial where more absentee ballots were counted, and Franken emerged with a 312-vote lead. Coleman appealed the decision by the district court in April.